Many thanks for all your reply and sorry for my late reply. It is because my wife decided to leave hospital (despite the doctor's recommendation is to monitor for a few more days). She thinks the hospital environment make her tense and hence the BP is high. Now, she is back home and the BP is around 145 to 155. She is still taking 400mg lebatalol twice a day.

Laney: Thanks for your kind words. There is no breastmilk donation center in the hospital. As she is only taking lebatalol, she is still breastfeeding. However, the baby got a big stomach (which is good as she is relatively small size (2.5kg)) so we need to supplement with formula.

Marie/Rachel: Yes, I want to do some research and that's why I find this website. Your reference is exactly what I am looking for. I will talk to my family doctor / doctor in hospital to understand more on procardia and lisinopril.

L1606: Exactly, my personal preference is to lower my wife's BP first but the doctor's seem to want to continue the breastfeed while monitoring the BP. I would rather pump and dump for a short while (or even feed with formula instead). I think I need to voice that out louder. I understand the government policy in here is to recommend breastfeed. I understand the advantages of having breastfeed but I think the safety of the mummy should be placed higher than that.

It sounds like you are being a great advocate for your wife! I too had it postpartum and was put on lisinopril along with procardia and lebetalol. The lisinopril made it so I couldn't breastfeed so I stopped.
Also, the only symptoms I had was high BP and very sensitive reflexes. The hyperreflexes are something that a lot of doctors miss.
I wish you and your wife the best!!!

I had postpartum preeclampsia and was on two different IV antihypertensive medications and magnesium sulphate while in the hospital and then was on Labetalol for 7 months after. I'm sorry that I don't recall which antihypertensive medications they were (it was a while ago) but I was always assured by my doctors that everything was safe for breastfeeding. I continued to breastfeed throughout my entire hospital stay and throughout the 7 months of Labetalol. I noticed no ill effects in my son.

If your wife needs to be on medications that may not be safe for breastfeeding, she can certainly try pumping and dumping in order to keep up her milk supply for when she can return to breastfeeding. Sometimes babies can give a bit of trouble to latch properly after an extended break but you can seek out a lactation consultant to get help with this. That said, sometimes having a happy and healthy mother and child means moving to formula. Every situation is different and I'm sure that your wife will be able to determine what is the best decision for herself and baby.

Pharmacists are great resources to get a second opinion on the safety of a prescribed drug for breastfeeding. www.motherisk.org is also a good resource.

The bloodwork and urine tests that you've described are the required testing that I know of for this.

I am 10 months post partum. I delivered at 38/3. Protien at 800. Liver enzymes skyrocket. Platelets dropped and blood pressure extremely high. My daughter was healthy except delivery drugs went to her lungs.I think they gave me procardia? For bp and magnesium sulfate to prevent siezures. I was induced with pectocin (sp).
I breast fed for 4 months on lebatalol started out 200mg 2x a day. Down to 100mg 2x then down to 100 morning 50 night to 50 /50 I quit breastfeeding at 4 months due to my daughters drowsiness droopy eyes and lack of energy. With in a few days of stopping she was more alert opening her eyes no drooping. Cooing talking and a ton of energy. I reccomend not breastfeeding on bp meds. I am still having a bp issue with high liver enzymes and heart palps. I found out with all my blood work i have a vit d deficiency They tested thyroid, auto immune deficiency and every few minths i go for liver panel and d levels. I am also Borderline magnesium and b12 deficiency.
Good luck to you. I was encouraged to breastfeed also by all the drs I encountered. And none of them thought her drowsiness was related to my bp meds. But in the best interest of the baby i stopped. And she thrived after. She is a completely different baby now. And now we are catching up for 4 months of crucial develoment and motor skills she missed those first few months. It was the best decision for us and I wish I would have stopped sooner but I was very ill after the birth and was not educated on my condition like I am now. You have to be your own advocate for your health. Reasearch and question everything. I am now on 25 metoprolol er at night only. ( I must note I am very hypersensitive to medication so that could be why my daughter had symptoms from the medication.)

Last edited by tabitha.marie on Tue Dec 29, 2015 05:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sorry to hear what you are going through. It's pretty typical for the doctors to monitor her urine (looking for protein, which is a sign of kidney malfunction), her blood work (looking at protein markers, platelet counts and red blood cells), and her liver enzymes (to make sure that she doesn't develop HELLP syndrome http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-info ... p-syndrome). As long as she is being closely monitored, they should be able to detect any signs of things getting worse, but make sure that she lets them know if she gets a severe headache or vision issues, starts to see swelling in her hands or face, or has any of these other signs or symptoms: http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-info ... n-symptoms.

Regarding the BP medication and the breastfeeding, I've encouraged our community to hop on and share with you their own experiences with BP and breastfeeding. It can be very challenging to maintain the proper dosage while also making sure it is not a medication that could affect the baby. That being said, your wife's health is important, so ask her doctors what the plan is if her BP doesn't start coming down and what your options are, so you can both be prepared as well as to start a dialogue in case your baby needs to temporarily go on formula.

Does the hospital have any type of breastmilk donation center? Can your wife use a breast pump to "pump and dump" until she can wean off stronger BP medications? You might ask about these options with her nurses.

Director of Community Relations for the Preeclampsia Foundation
*does not provide any medical advice*
for more information, please visit www.preeclampsia.org

After delivery, my wife's BP fluctuates but never drop below 140 (2 days ago it was 141 to 142, but today rise up to 17x). Urine protein varied from 1+ to 2+ and there is swelling in her feet. Liver test is normal.

My wife is currently in a public holiday. The doctors and nurses are nice but they are bound by bureaucracy. In here, they request all mothers to breastfeed their babies (unless very special circumstance) so they only dose 400mg labetalol (only drugs that can be used with breastfeeding) twice a day.

I am so helpless right now. It would be grateful if someone would share their experiences on (I understand these are not medicine advices):

- did you take any other medicine than labetalol while you continue to breastfeed? (what are these)
- whether they have stopped breastfeeding (temporarily) and whether they can breastfeed again after they bp returns to normal level.
- other than testing BP, urine and liver, what other medical checks that you have done? (I am a bit worried that the doctor only do the checks that they think necessary, rather than doing all the tests available to get a better picture on the situation)